Here is Vivian Marie Reeves with her grandson Mike at a family cook out at my mother’s place last summer. Vivian passed away on January 15th at the age of 79. A quote by Elizabeth Barret Browning best describes her: “Twas her thinking of others made you think of her“.
I almost forgot about this one! After work one morning, Doug and I went to Sarge’s Triangle Restaurant for some breakfast. I had my usual biscuits and gravy. In my opinion, their biscuits and gravy can’t be beat. At most other places, they throw a biscuit on a plate and drizzle a little bit of gravy on it. Not at Sarge’s! They serve it in a bowl of gravy. There is so much gravy you can’t even see the biscuits. Tasty. On the ride back, the vanagon, aka the “love bus”, stalled a couple of times. Once we got back to my house, it didn’t take long for Doug to figure it out the problem.
If your looking for a great cup of coffee or espresso, check out Uncommon Grounds. It is by far my favorite coffee shop in Saratoga Springs, New York. The atmosphere is just right. The people are always friendly, and the walls are decorated with artwork from local area artists. Try getting there in the morning when they roast their coffee beans in the machine that’s on the left as soon as you enter. The delicious aroma fills the place and can make it’s way out on to the sidewalk. They also sell a wide variety of foods including soups and sandwiches. My personal favorite is the breakfast sandwich on a bagel. It’s so tasty probably because their bagels are made fresh daily. Any bagels that are older than a day are not used. They are sold in packages at a discount which usually go pretty fast. Being a huge geek, the free Wi-Fi is definitely a plus!
Last night we met Pete, Natalie, and Mia over at Ray and Diana’s place for dinner and cake in celebration of Jennifer’s birthday. Ray gave Jennifer a tripod small enough for her to carry around almost anywhere. A perfect present for her, because she is really developing an eye for photography. He also let her borrow a ton of home videos from her childhood. There must be hundreds of hours on all those tapes!
Our friends Doug and Sonya invited us to a “Winter Celebration” yesterday at Lisa and Jim Carter’s house in Granville, New York. Shortly after arriving, Lisa greeted us all and gave the grand tour of her beautiful home. Every room we explored was filled with so many unique antiques. The best part were the stories Lisa would tell about many of them. For example, she showed us an antique writing pen that her Grandmother used in a one-room school house. It still had the dry ink in the jar!
The house was also filled with some fascinating individuals. We met many new people including Geoffrey Gee. He spent part of the evening filling the house with some great piano music, but did find some time to chat with us. He is a pianist, composer, and sound designer living at Hebron Hollow, a farm for arts and ideas.
Afterwards, we went over to Doug and Sonya Just’s home in Hartford, New York. Doug gave us a tour of the huge historical house and showed us some of its unique aspects including an old outhouse and a few secret compartments. He has done an amazing amount of work of it. Some of the home improvement projects he has undertaken can seem overwhelming for one person, but he somehow figured out a way. Check out Doug’s Flickr site for some photos.
